Art, Heart & Words
My eyes are bleeding from working for so long on the illustrations for Deny Me and I’m over it. So today I took a breather (well, not really, I was just ALSO doing this) and made this per my editor’s behest. She’s my green-skinned baby.
Here’s some old Lucienne for comparison. She’s always been a sensual girl.
I knew I wanted to make a Valentine’s Day picture. It finally occurred to me reading someone’s post on Instagram that I hate Valentine’s Day as a corporate greed and performative holiday that make coupled people feel pressure and single people feel miserable, but it’s always so tempting because I love pink, hearts, and kisses.
Surprisingly, I decided to make a smooch between Lucienne and Ingrid rather than Andrew and Micah. I was actually working on a concurrent kiss but not Valentine’s picture of the boys, but I knew I wasn’t going to get that finished in time. Thinking about it on my drive to work, I think I’m going to have to make a version of this with some line art, but I finished this at 10:30 very specifically to have it done on Valentine’s Day, so without further ado.
I was going to stop at a sketch for this and I actually think the sketch turned out really pretty too. The angle of Lucienne’s face was a bit better in the sketch.
I had some smooches in mind with them and other partners they’ve had in the past thinking I had several more that were done on Valentine’s Day, but I think this Lucy one from Sun-Walking was the only one.
I’m revising Superior and added a scene where Micah makes Ingrid and Lucienne go to Target to get gifts for the Folk and…doodles ensued
And okay so when I was writing the original draft I kept debating whether or not Micah and Lucienne would kiss/have a thing/briefly be together and I opted for this awkward Trial scene where Lucienne tricks Micah into thinking they slept together, but I ended up squeezing another scene in in its place and Micah ends up in Lilydale
So I talked it through with, you know, my monogamous partner, and ended up deciding one one kiss between them
and
GOSH THEY’RE A GOOD LOOKING COUPLE WTF
what a weird little world this trilogy exists in
Early last week I reached the long-awaited point in Dumping a Dragon where, after initially riding the high of creating Sivarthis’s dragon self, I always anticipated hitting a creative wall. And indeed, whether I damned myself to that by expecting it or not, I hit a wall.
I ended my first meet cute/flashback and had NO IDEA how to ease into the next segment. I tried four or five or twelve things. I wrote out a script. I sketched thumbnails. And every time I tried a page, it felt flat and lame.
Finally while watching the latest season of the Great British Baking Show, I started inking a page without much confidence…until I added the background.
This. Damn. Mountain.
Fixed. Everything.
Honestly, not only am I SUPER proud of that in terms of being a scenery image I’m usually pretty weak at, I’m super proud that it became the first page to get everything moving again. Even though I rewrote dialogue and tweaked panels until my eyes bled, and I asked for advice before immediately rejecting it, I am proud of how it turned out. The colors, the composition, most importantly the fact that I shamelessly magicked Sivarthis into looking a bit different, a bit more manageable, and having him allude to the fact that he could just change his size at will so that he can fit into frames with Noelia, haha.
Plus, this way ends up keeping the story following the novella more closely than the alternate way I had contemplated doing this scene.
Oh yeah, of course when I had hit my wall I was also preparing Sun-Walking for a witchy friend of mine to read. Which meant, though I didn’t need to, that I reread the ENTIRE 145k thing on my weekend off. I literally accomplished nothing new. Just reread Sun-Walking. More. God I love that project so much. After my witchy friend finishes it and we make adjustments to it, I think I’m going to have my dad find some publishers to pitch it to again. I’m finally ready.
The rewrites of Sun-Walking have been going well. ^_^
There are a few awkward places here and there, so far mostly in Wind-Running, where I’m not sure if I should take pieces totally out or rework them entirely still, but Wind-Running is definitely better than it was at its birth.
This was a new addition to a scene in there that I’ve been really stuck on since then today.
I just finished “Daughters of the Storm” by Kim Wilkins and it was the best book I’ve read in ages. Unfortunately, much like the last few books I’ve read except for “The Hazel Wood,” it hit me with a surprise THIS IS THE FIRST IN A SERIES! in about the last 20 pages. I just don’t like being tricked. It wasn’t indicated anywhere on it that it was going to be a series. Most things wrapped up except for two arcs so I was like sweet okay and then it slams me with a “AND NOW IT’S TIME TO DO THIS” and “AND NOW THIS DRAMA” and I’m like ………………….. at what point do I just have to accept that series are a part of fantasy and I need to just read them anyway. Probably at the point when I get a new bookshelf. :/
I resolved while talking to some patients a few days ago that I would take some time off from video games to focus on producing art. It helped that on Sunday I got to buy 3 books for my birthday on a trip out with my parents and husband. So all I’ve been doing on my “weekend” is reading, creating, sleeping, and chores. Good times. The only shame is that I’m not into coffee right now. *tear*
Anyway, so Sunday night on my way home from work I got seriously into “Don’t Take the Money” by Bleachers, and as I was sitting at my art desk Monday morning wondering what to draw, I got a vision from the line
Till I saw your face and hands covered in sun and then
I think I understand
and I was like OOH what if I did shafts of sun/shadow on LUCY BECAUSE LIGHT AND STUFF
Needless to say, when I tried the “shafts” part it looked very harsh, bruise-like, and stupid, so it evolved into a more straightfoward light source but with some still fabulous, layered shading and tone transitions. I had her have like this shawl thing draped over one shoulder originally that the more I tried to work with the more I was like -___- I hate, so eventually I was like … this piece is nothing except risk after risk, so I sliced off her whole shoulder and went for some good ol’ fashioned taping a fresh sheet of paper under the rip. I ended up loooving the kind of abstract, sunset shape of her shoulder in the new part.
I find myself very stuck on Sun-Walking. Lucienne feels like my quiet, best friend of a conscience, making me brave and anchored. I put myself to sleep by drifting off into Helios and Agaar. It’s peaceful, it’s centered. It’s a whole world, with a fearsome, loving couple at its helm. I wish I knew what to do with my persistent passion for this project. I keep rereading the manuscript. It’s good. It’s really solid. It’s worth coming back to again and again, and at this point it doesn’t even need any major revisions. So like, at what point do I just gather myself and send off some queries again? I don’t know. The world has become so sacred to me I almost don’t dare to try to push it into the public eye. I don’t want it violated by anyone. At the moment then I suppose I’m just very happy to have Helios and Lucienne to slip away with in the middle of the night, and to be able to continue to draw inspiration from all the themes of the book.
Yet again, some 4 years later, I somehow ended up accidentally using Lee and Lucy for a Valentine’s drawing. Probably regret Levi’s hat. He’s not a hat kind of guy apparently. Not that it looks bad, it just makes him look so un-Levi-like. I fucking love both their cute little faces. And Lucienne’s glorious thick Tangled-esque braid. Friendly reminder that Lucy and Lee have reminded me of Rapunzel and Flynn ever since I saw the movie in theaters when I was first writing it eight fucking years ago per IMDB.
Used a surface blur this time around to soften the grainy familiarity of colored pencils. And nod to Levi’s “SW” hat.
Hopefully now that I finally put the lyrics from that one song into a drawing I’ll stop being so ridiculous about it.
Had this image a few days ago after I’ve been in a major creative dry spell. I cranked it all out last night/this morning and I freaking love it. I think it looks so badass and neat. Totally what I wanted it to be like.
A few weeks ago I had been in this habit of just reading through Sun-Walking when I was bored, like, for a few hours at a time. And I had been paging through Wind-Running and redoing a few scenes at a time before I suddenly realized I felt totally ready to FINALLY tear that whole middle segment out and REWRITE THE WHOLE THING!
Because that’s my life.
It’s weird though because I never feel more peaceful than when I’m immersed in one of my worlds. I hate how much I like it, haha.
Regardless, I think this draft is going WAY better. It’s all a bit more mature than when I wrote it as a grumpy college kid. And I want to stay true to my original intention with Sun-Walking to finish it again this time around and start sending out some casual queries.
Needless to say I’ve been doodling the shit out of my favorite power couple so here’s a dump.
I finally managed a grayscale of them being adorable! Definitely not the piece I’d had floating around in my head all week, but I’m happy with it. I finally wrote a mushy scene in Wind-Running that I really enjoyed.
Levi and his sarcastic looks gaaaaah.
Aww Lucy’s pastiness got sunburned and Lee’s all like man.
This super video gamey vector image – I frickin love the colors, right?
Just a doodle of Lee, colored, ’cause after that grayscale I was all like … I do know how to get his skintone right, right?
I haven’t even given Lucy this job at the restaurant with Lee yet and I’m not even sure I like it, but this was pretty funny. LEE LOOKS SO CUTE
A sketch from when I was first picking up momentum during this rewrite.
If only it weren’t so perfectly transparent when it’s summertime and I start using pale yellow in ALL my pictures, hah. I bet you my color choices are actually seasonal though. Cool blues or dark reds for winter, warm pale yellows for summer, and sometimes heather pink.
It’s teaching season right now and I’m in Bloomington about to teach 3 kids Comic Book Design for the rest of the week, and then next week I’m doing my second week of the summer with my Super Stories bunch. That’s gonna be super nice after my first week because I have nine students instead of 16. But MARY DON’T FORGET TO CALL MIA OKAY
I very halfheartedly started a story idea based on the kind of element magic I’ve always wanted to do and on my super complicated relationship with one of my students. I have a scene and a half written. I love the first scene, and then I’m not sure how to move it forward.
ANYWAY
I did this drawing during the last day of my class last week when my kids were busily at work and I was really bored. Not gonna lie, I kind of all but forgot about Manga Studio until I was showing my kids how it worked, and then in the process I figured out how to close a bunch of menus and naturally got super into it again. I wanted to draw Micah but blond hair looked better with this color palette. DOESN’T HIS PIZZA LOOK DEFRICKINGLICIOUS
I was feeling sleepy and content Sunday morning, and I’d been reading Sun-Walking over again a few weeks ago and it had me on a bit of a Lucy/Lee bender. I love them so so so much. They’re so fierce and stubborn and tender at the same time. I love how much Lucy gets humbled in the last part of the book after building and building up till she can’t really keep up with herself anymore. I think it’s kind of a coming of age novel in that Lucy takes a risk and then grows into her choices and the realization that while she made herself better, it’s not the only way.
That’s it. Time to teach!